Author: Kate Morton

As with all the other books I’ve read by this author the story is told in two different time periods; both stories are set in Australia.

Jess is called back from England when her elderly grandmother is admitted to hospital. Jess is estranged from her mother Polly when, as a young child, she was left in the care of her grandmother. It is a mystery as to why her grandmother was trying to get to the attic of the house when she had her fall – a mystery that Jess is determined to unravel.

There are twists in the story; I was very close to the end before I solved at least part of the mystery.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

April 12, 2025

As I worked on various projects for the past while I’ve been putting them aside for Madison’s shower if they seemed appropriate.

Place the turtle on the kitchen floor. Please don’t kick him out the door. He is there to help you with the task of mopping up that spill. So place your foot upon his back and push him around and around. When the spill is there no more, just leave him lying on the floor.

This little cleaning turtle was an idea that Gail wanted to make so we worked on it at our Friday sewing sessions. The back of the turtle is a towel (to soak up the spills). Not long ago Madison had a turtle as a pet so this seemed somewhat fitting.

These sashiko-inspired cat coasters were another patten that Gail found. She had never done any sashiko so was a bit slower. I had time to make a set of four.

These placemats were a Guild challenge project from a few years ago. They weren’t done in time to show them at the year-end party that year but all they needed was to be quilted. The challenge fabric was the little skunks in the centre.

And what kitchen is complete without some microwave bowl cozies and pot holders?

I was playing catch-up for the February sewing session with Stacia and Deloise so I was happy that this one was small. It may have been small but there were a lot of small pieces that went into it – 152 to be precise. I admit to having a bit of a head start on my cutting because I used squares that I had already cut for my Postage Stamp quilt. Still, it took some time to get enough pieces cut.

Once the pieces were done it was relatively simple to put them all together. Plus, I had some helpful hints from Deloise who had already done the project.

Quilting was very simple straight lines and I had plenty of time to finish up the January project during our two days of sewing.

This was my January sewing project with Stacia and Deloise, but I didn’t finish it until our February sewing day.

Appliqué isn’t my favourite technique but I happen to like stars so this was a mixture of the two. I had everything done but the quilting when I set it aside to work on quilt show projects.

When I got back to the quilting I found a method to do what looks like free-motion quilting but all done with my walking foot. I’ll use this technique often in the future.

When the Guild requested more items for the show I decided to enter this one. Except for that darker than neutral square I’m happy with it (and to be honest I never noticed that until just now).

For several years I have enjoyed virtual monthly sewing sessions with my sisters. This year we are all working from the same book (Little Handfuls of Scraps) but we each pick and choose which pattern we want to do in any given month. I look forward to an in-person sewing session with them this fall. It was quilted on my domestic Janome.